MEMOIRS
OF A SOUTHERN WOMAN
"WITHIN THE LINES"
AND
A GENEALOGICAL RECORD
I love Mule Day in Columbia, Tennessee, for several reasons. I adore mules, Southern cooking and Tennessee hospitality. I even own one of those hybrids, an old mule named Mathew. The name Mule Day implies a one day event, but it a yearly celebration that lasts for several days with fun for everyone. I jokingly tell folks that they have not really lived if they have never been to Mule Day!
This year Mule Day was held from March 31st through April 3rd, 2011. I had made tentative plans to drive down to Columbia and had ordered their colorful catalogue of events weeks in advance. Due to various circumstances, I did not attend this year’s Mule Day. Before disposing of their fine brochure, I decided to read all the articles it contained. One paragraph on page 8 stood out from the rest.
“A young lady, Antoinette Polk, made a heroic ride from Columbia to her home in Ashwood to warn her friends and family that the Federal troops were headed their way. She, no doubt, saved some lives that day. For her efforts, she was presented a battle flag by General Nathan Bedford Forrest. This flag has been restored and is back in Maury County after years in Switzerland and France. It’s an interesting story.” At the bottom of the page was listed the telephone number for the Maury County Convention and Visitors Bureau in Columbia, Tennessee.
In order to learn more about this Tennessee heroine, I took to the internet and found a lovely photograph of Antoinette Polk Baronne de Charette. The name suggested that she married into a European family.
In addition, I found an article written by B. L. Ridley for the 1896 Confederate Veteran about various heroines of the War. Antoinette Wayne Van Leer Polk was the full name of our heroine. She was related to Major General Anthony Wayne of Revolutionary fame.
According to Ridley, “She was not fully grown when she took this famous ride. After the war she went abroad with her father and mother and finished her education in Europe. The health of her father, Andrew Jackson Polk, having failed when in the Confederate Army, he grew worse and died in Switzerland.
Miss Polk had a most brilliant young ladyhood abroad. principally in Rome, where she was beloved by the Princess Margarite, and universally admired. She married a distinguished French soldier of the old regime, the Marquis de Charette de la Contrie, like herself, of heroic stock, and has her home in France. She has one son, a youth of great promise.”
From a 1909 New York Times article with the heading French Marquis Weds Miss Henning, there were many details about Antoinette’s son, Antoine de Charette, and his wedding to a Kentucky horsewoman named Miss Susanne Henning. She was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. James Williamson Henning. John B. Castleman was in attendance.
I was soon able to get in touch with Bob Duncan, the Director of the Maury County Archives. From Bob’s research I learned that their Paris-born daughter, Susanne de Charette, married Brigadier General Ronald Van Stockum. This granddaughter of Antoinette Polk had made her home at Allen Dale Farm in Shelby County, Kentucky.
Per Mr. Ridley: “They talk about Sheridan’s ride but let me tell of one that strips it of its grandeur the famous run of Miss Antoinette Polk, displaying a heroism worthy of imperishable record. She was on the Hampshire Turnpike, a few miles from Columbia, Tenn., when some one informed her of Federals contemplated visit to her father’s home on the Mt. Pleasant Pike five miles across—said pikes forming an obtuse angle from Columbia. She knew that some soldier friends at her father’s would be captured unless they had notice, and in order to inform them, she had to go across the angle that was barricaded many times with high rail and rock fences. There was no more superb equestrienne in the valley of the Tennessee and she was of magnificent physique. She had a thoroughbred horse trained to her bidding. The young lady started, leaping the fences like a reindeer, and came out on the pike just in front of the troopers, four miles from home. They took after her, but her foaming steed was so fleet of foot, that she got away from them in the twinkling of an eye, and saved her friends from capture.”
In recognition of this heroic ride, General Nathan Bedford Forrest while stationed in Columbia in 1863, presented Miss Polk with the battle flag already mentioned in the Mule Day report. Naturally, I felt the flag would have been a Confederate flag, but it was not. The flag presented to this young lady was a Federal flag taken when General Forrest captured the entire command of Colonel Abel Streight during a raid in Alabama.
That same flag had been to Switzerland while the Polk family resided there. It had been displayed at the French home where Antoinette lived outside of Paris. Finally, after years and miles of travel, the flag was back in this country with her granddaughter and family.
In 1999, due to the generosity of the Von Stockum family, that fragile piece of our history was returned to its home. Susanne de Charette Van Stockum donated the flag to the people of Maury County. Over a period of years the Maury County Archives were able to raise the necessary funds to have the flag restored and encased in a glass frame.
Many thanks are due to Bob Duncan for his assistance and Southern hospitality. Bob gathered and recorded many of the facts and photos contained in this report. He would be glad to show you the Streight/Forrest/Polk flag next time you visit Columbia, Tennessee.
In modern parlance you might say that General Forrest truly “punked” Federal Colonel Streight in a masterful act of war. With outnumbered forces, that devil/genius Forrest tricked Colonel Streight into surrendering his entire command along with his reputation.
You just never know where interesting War tales are to be found and waiting to be retold.
No comments:
Post a Comment